diff --git a/src/js/lib.js b/src/js/lib.js
index 456792646..3d035a2ab 100644
--- a/src/js/lib.js
+++ b/src/js/lib.js
@@ -8,29 +8,29 @@ var hasOwnProp = Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty;
  * @private
  */
 vjs.createEl = function(tagName, properties){
-  var el, propName;
+  var el;
 
-  el = document.createElement(tagName || 'div');
+  tagName = tagName || 'div';
+  properties = properties || {};
 
-  for (propName in properties){
-    if (hasOwnProp.call(properties, propName)) {
-      //el[propName] = properties[propName];
-      // Not remembering why we were checking for dash
-      // but using setAttribute means you have to use getAttribute
+  el = document.createElement(tagName);
 
-      // The check for dash checks for the aria-* attributes, like aria-label, aria-valuemin.
-      // The additional check for "role" is because the default method for adding attributes does not
-      // add the attribute "role". My guess is because it's not a valid attribute in some namespaces, although
-      // browsers handle the attribute just fine. The W3C allows for aria-* attributes to be used in pre-HTML5 docs.
-      // http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-primer/#ariahtml. Using setAttribute gets around this problem.
+  vjs.obj.each(properties, function(propName, val){
+    // Not remembering why we were checking for dash
+    // but using setAttribute means you have to use getAttribute
 
-       if (propName.indexOf('aria-') !== -1 || propName=='role') {
-         el.setAttribute(propName, properties[propName]);
-       } else {
-         el[propName] = properties[propName];
-       }
+    // The check for dash checks for the aria-* attributes, like aria-label, aria-valuemin.
+    // The additional check for "role" is because the default method for adding attributes does not
+    // add the attribute "role". My guess is because it's not a valid attribute in some namespaces, although
+    // browsers handle the attribute just fine. The W3C allows for aria-* attributes to be used in pre-HTML5 docs.
+    // http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-primer/#ariahtml. Using setAttribute gets around this problem.
+    if (propName.indexOf('aria-') !== -1 || propName == 'role') {
+     el.setAttribute(propName, val);
+    } else {
+     el[propName] = val;
     }
-  }
+  });
+
   return el;
 };
 
@@ -402,7 +402,7 @@ vjs.setElementAttributes = function(el, attributes){
     if (attrValue === null || typeof attrValue === 'undefined' || attrValue === false) {
       el.removeAttribute(attrName);
     } else {
-      el.setAttribute(attrName,attrValue === true ? '' : attrValue);
+      el.setAttribute(attrName, (attrValue === true ? '' : attrValue));
     }
   });
 };
diff --git a/src/js/media/html5.js b/src/js/media/html5.js
index d959d1a96..eb4b41218 100644
--- a/src/js/media/html5.js
+++ b/src/js/media/html5.js
@@ -81,9 +81,9 @@ vjs.Html5.prototype.createEl = function(){
       el = clone;
       player.tag = null;
     } else {
-      el = vjs.createEl('video', {});
+      el = vjs.createEl('video');
       vjs.setElementAttributes(el,
-        vjs.obj.merge(player.tagAttributes||{}, {
+        vjs.obj.merge(player.tagAttributes || {}, {
           id:player.id() + '_html5_api',
           'class':'vjs-tech'
         })
diff --git a/src/js/player.js b/src/js/player.js
index 6eb9ad64a..6797d551a 100644
--- a/src/js/player.js
+++ b/src/js/player.js
@@ -32,11 +32,12 @@ vjs.Player = vjs.Component.extend({
   init: function(tag, options, ready){
     this.tag = tag; // Store the original tag used to set options
 
-    this.tagAttributes = (tag) ? vjs.getElementAttributes(tag) : {}; // Store the tag attributes used to restore html5 tech
-
     // Make sure tag ID exists
     tag.id = tag.id || 'vjs_video_' + vjs.guid++;
 
+    // Store the tag attributes used to restore html5 element
+    this.tagAttributes = tag && vjs.getElementAttributes(tag);
+
     // Set Options
     // The options argument overrides options set in the video tag
     // which overrides globally set options.
@@ -195,7 +196,7 @@ vjs.Player.prototype.createEl = function(){
 
   // Copy over all the attributes from the tag, including ID and class
   // ID will now reference player box, not the video tag
-  attrs = vjs.getAttributeValues(tag);
+  attrs = vjs.getElementAttributes(tag);
   vjs.obj.each(attrs, function(attr) {
     el.setAttribute(attr, attrs[attr]);
   });
diff --git a/test/unit/lib.js b/test/unit/lib.js
index a21cc3519..080659c00 100644
--- a/test/unit/lib.js
+++ b/test/unit/lib.js
@@ -152,20 +152,17 @@ test('should read tag attributes from elements, including HTML5 in all browsers'
   equal(trackVals['title'], 'test');
 });
 
+test('should set element attributes from object', function(){
+  var el, vid1Vals;
 
-test('should set tag attributes from object', function(){
+  el = document.createElement('div');
+  el.id = 'el1';
 
-  var tags = '<video id="vid1" controls data-test="ok"></video>';
+  vjs.setElementAttributes(el, { controls: true, 'data-test': 'asdf' });
 
-  document.getElementById('qunit-fixture').innerHTML += tags;
-  var el = document.getElementById('vid1');
-  vjs.setElementAttributes(el, {controls: false,'data-test': 'asdf'});
-
-  var vid1Vals = vjs.getElementAttributes(document.getElementById('vid1'));
-
-  equal(vid1Vals['controls'], undefined);
-  equal(vid1Vals['id'], 'vid1');
-  equal(vid1Vals['data-test'], 'asdf');
+  equal(el.getAttribute('id'), 'el1');
+  equal(el.getAttribute('controls'), '');
+  equal(el.getAttribute('data-test'), 'asdf');
 });
 
 test('should get the right style values for an element', function(){
diff --git a/test/unit/player.js b/test/unit/player.js
index c69add4c5..5e1335c02 100644
--- a/test/unit/player.js
+++ b/test/unit/player.js
@@ -495,32 +495,26 @@ test('Data attributes on the video element should persist in the new wrapper ele
   equal(player.el().getAttribute('data-id'), dataId, 'data-id should be available on the new player element after creation');
 });
 
-test('should restore all video tags attribute after a tech switch', function(){
-  var fixture = document.getElementById('qunit-fixture');
-  var html = '<video id="example_1" class="vjs-tech" preload="" webkit-playsinline="" autoplay=""></video>';
-  fixture.innerHTML += html;
+test('should restore attributes from the original video tag when creating a new element', function(){
+  var player, html5Mock, el;
 
-  var tag = document.getElementById('example_1');
-  var player = new videojs.Player(tag, {techOrder:['html5']});
-  var techOptions = vjs.obj.merge({ 'source': '', 'parentEl': player.el_ }, player.options_['html5']);
-  vjs.Html5.disposeMediaElement(player.tag);
-  player.tag = null;
-  player.tech = new vjs.Html5(player, techOptions);
+  player = PlayerTest.makePlayer();
+  html5Mock = { player_: player };
 
-  PlayerTest.htmlEqualWithSort(player.tech.el_.outerHTML, html.replace('example_1','example_1_html5_api'));
-});
-
-test('should restore all video tags attribute after a tech switch and keep options', function(){
-  var fixture = document.getElementById('qunit-fixture');
-  var html = '<video id="example_1" class="vjs-tech" preload="none" autoplay=""></video>';
-  fixture.innerHTML += html;
-
-  var tag = document.getElementById('example_1');
-  var player = new videojs.Player(tag, {techOrder:['html5'], autoplay:false});
-  var techOptions = vjs.obj.merge({ 'source': '', 'parentEl': player.el_ }, player.options_['html5']);
-  vjs.Html5.disposeMediaElement(player.tag);
-  player.tag = null;
-  player.tech = new vjs.Html5(player, techOptions);
-
-  PlayerTest.htmlEqualWithSort(player.tech.el_.outerHTML, html.replace('example_1','example_1_html5_api').replace(' autoplay=""',''));
+  // simulate attributes stored from the original tag
+  player.tagAttributes = {
+    'preload': 'auto',
+    'controls': true,
+    'webkit-playsinline': true
+  };
+
+  // set options that should override tag attributes
+  player.options_['preload'] = 'none';
+
+  // create the element
+  el = vjs.Html5.prototype.createEl.call(html5Mock);
+
+  equal(el.getAttribute('preload'), 'none', 'attribute was successful overridden by an option');
+  equal(el.getAttribute('controls'), '', 'controls attribute was set properly');
+  equal(el.getAttribute('webkit-playsinline'), '', 'webkit-playsinline attribute was set properly');
 });
diff --git a/test/unit/test-helpers.js b/test/unit/test-helpers.js
index ac84970f9..ee91ecb4c 100644
--- a/test/unit/test-helpers.js
+++ b/test/unit/test-helpers.js
@@ -17,16 +17,5 @@ var PlayerTest = {
     playerOptions['techOrder'] = ['mediaFaker'];
 
     return player = new videojs.Player(videoTag, playerOptions);
-  },
-  htmlEqualWithSort : function(htmlResult,htmlExpected) {
-    function htmlTransform(str) {
-      str = str.replace(/[<|>]/g,' ');
-      str = str.trim();
-      str = str.replace(/\s{2,}/g, ' ');
-      return str.split(' ').sort().join(' ');
-    }
-    htmlResult= htmlResult.split(' ').sort().join(' ');
-    equal(htmlTransform(htmlResult),htmlTransform(htmlExpected));
-
   }
 };